Wrench.



M. A. RICE.

WRENCH.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.22| 1916.

lMARIK A. RICE, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

WRENCH.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application med Augst 22, 1916. serial 116,271.

To all whom z't may concer/n.

Be it known that I, MARK A. RICE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Los Angeles, in the c ounty'of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wrenches, of which the following is a speciication.

' My invention relates to Wrenches, and the main object thereof is to provide an adjustable wrench possessing substantially the rigidity of a solid wrench. The ordinary adjustable wrench is unreliable for close work on account of lost motion and the loose movement of the several parts, and will not maintain a perfect adjustment necessary to satisfactory work, particularly on small hexagon nuts. With my invention, however, I overcome this tendency to lost motion and the tendency of the parts to work looseafter the Wrench has been used some time and I accomplish this result-without any changein the stock or jaws of adjustable wrenches now' on the market, the only change being in the screw-threaded jaw adjusting means.

My invention is Ifully described in the following specification, of which the accompanying drawings form a part, in which like characters refer to like parts in .each of the views, and 1n which:-

Figure 1 is a side elevation of one type of adjustable wrench provided with my invention; and

Fig. 2 is an enlarged section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, 3 represents a stock provided with a fixed j awe-4, with an openin 5 entirely therethrough transversely thereo and with a passage 6 for the screw threaded carrier for a movable jaw 7, said carrier being designated 8 and being of substantially T-formation in cross-section tof prevent its escape from the similarlyvformed passage 6 except axially ofsaid carrier.

The opemng 5 in the stock is of conventional forni, as are all the parts so far mentloned, said opening being for the reception of the threaded element or nut 9 which is in constant engagement with the threads on the carrier 8 and moves said carrier axially when said nut is manually rotated, thereby adjusting the jaws' toward or from each other correspondingly, this nut also being of the ordinary type exteriorly.'`

Patented Mar. 6, 1917.

By reference to Fig. 2, enlarged over Fig.

1, it will be observed that the nut 9 is held 1n place by means of a screw 10 in turn held in the stock above and below the opening 5, this also being of ordinary construction, but I provide a recess 11 in the nut 9 for the reception of a coil'spring 12 through which the screw 10 vis freely passed, and I provide a cap 13 for this recess 11 which serves as a bearing for theupper end of the coil spring 12 and is in turn held against the stock at the upper side of the opening 5.

In order to provide against relative movement vof the nut 9 and cap 13 I slot the upper end of the nut, at 14, for a slight projection 15 on the cap, the latter having approximately the same external diameter as the internal diameter of the recess 11 and projects thereinto.

The action of the coil spring 12 tends to force the cap away from the nut and thus into frictional contact with the stock, and the spring also tends to force the lower end of the nut into stock-contact for the same reason, with the result that, while the nut may be manually rotated when desired, such f applicable to wrenches of different types,

and I reserve the right to make all such changes in details as will be necessary to adapt the invention to other types of wrenches, provided such changes do not depart from the spirit of thev inventlon, and come within. the scope of the following claim.

I-Iaving fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is`:- l

A wrench, comprising a stock provlded with an opening therethrough, a fixed jaw thereon, a jaw movable therein, a rotatmg counterbore and a projection thereon held in said slot to prevent relative rotation, said spring.,r `forcing said nut and cap apart into '1f frictional engagement with said stock at opposite ends of said opening.

MARK A. RICE. 

